learest, there was nothing daunting to
himself in that difficulty. On the contrary, he deemed his intimacy with
Grog as one of his greatest privileges. Grog had told him things that
he would not tell to another man breathing; he had seen, in Grog's own
hand, what would, if not hang him, give him twenty years at Norfolk
Island; he knew that Grog had done things no man in England but himself
had ever dreamed of; in fact, as Othello's perils had won the fair
Desdemona's love, Grog Davis's rascalities had captivated Beecher's
admiration; and, as the recruit might gaze upon the thickly studded
crosses on the breast of some glorious soldier, so did he venerate the
proofs of the thousand-and-one knaveries of one who for thirty-odd years
had been a "leg" and a swindler.

Let us present Captain Davis--for by that title was he popularly
known--to our reader. He was a short, red-faced--very red-faced--man,
with a profusion of orange-red hair, while he wore beard and whiskers
in that form so common in our Crimean experiences. He was long-armed and
bandy, the legs being singularly short and muscular. He affected dress,
and was remarkable for more ostentation of velvet than consisted with
ordinary taste, and a far greater display of rings, charms, and watch
trinkets than is common even to gentlemen of the "Jewish persuasion."
The expression of the man's face was eminently determination, and his
greenish-gray eyes and thin-lipped, compressed mouth plainly declared,
"Bet with me or not,--if you give me the shadow of a shade of
impertinence I 'll fasten a quarrel upon you of which all your rank and
station won't protect you from the consequences. I can hit a sixpence at
twenty paces, and I 'll make you feel that fact in every word you say to
me. In my brevet rank of the turf you can't disown me, and if you try,
mine the fault if you succeed." He had been out three or four times in
very sanguinary affairs, so that the question as to "meeting" him was a
settled point. He was one of those men to whom the epithet "dangerous"
completely applies; he was dangerous alike to the young fellow entering
life, unsuspectful of its wiles and ignorant of its rascalities;
dangerous in the easy facility with which he would make foolish wagers,
and lend even large sums on the very slightest acquaintance. He seemed
so impressed with his theory that everybody ought to have all the
enjoyment he liked, there was such a careless good-nature about him,
such an